[431] 7. "There are sages (muni) in the world," (so said the Venerable Nanda,)
so people declare — how then is this?
Do they call one endowed with knowledge (ñāṇa) a sage,
or rather one endowed with a way of life?
Not by view, not by learning, not by knowledge
(nor by rules and vows, sīlabbata)
do the skilled here, Nanda, speak of one as a sage.
Those who fare having routed the army,
untroubled, free of longing —
they are sages, I declare.
Whatever ascetics (samaṇa) and brahmins there are (so said the Venerable Nanda)
who assert purity by the seen and also by the heard,
who assert purity by rules and vows,
who assert purity in manifold ways —
have they indeed, (O Blessed One,) faring in that way therein,
crossed over birth (jāti) and aging (jarā), dear sir?
I ask you, Blessed One; tell me this.
Whatever ascetics and brahmins there are ("Nanda," said the Blessed One)
who assert purity by the seen and also by the heard,
who assert purity by rules and vows,
who assert purity in manifold ways —
although they fare in that way therein,
they have not crossed over birth and aging, I declare.
Whatever ascetics and brahmins there are (so said the Venerable Nanda)
who assert purity by the seen and also by the heard,
who assert purity by rules and vows,
who assert purity in manifold ways —
if you, O sage, say that they have not crossed the flood (ogha),
then who, pray, in the world of devas and human beings
has crossed over birth and aging, dear sir?
I ask you, Blessed One; tell me this.
I do not say ("Nanda," said the Blessed One)
that all ascetics and brahmins
are enveloped by birth and aging.
But those here who, having abandoned entirely
what is seen, or heard, or sensed (muta),
and rules and vows as well,
having abandoned entirely the manifold too,
having fully understood craving (taṇhā), are free of taints (āsava) —
those men, truly, have crossed the flood, I declare.
I rejoice in this word of the Great Seer:
well proclaimed, O Gotama, is that which is free of acquisitions (upadhi).
Those here who, having abandoned entirely
what is seen, or heard, or sensed,
and rules and vows as well,
having abandoned entirely the manifold too,
having fully understood craving, are free of taints —
I too declare of them: "They have crossed the flood."
The Questions of the Young Brahmin (māṇavaka) Nanda, the Seventh.
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The Questions of Hemaka, the Eighth [section] of the Pārāyana Chapter, the Fifth [Chapter] of the Suttanipāta.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.